BY JOSHUA CARROLL AND PATTIE THOMPSON
CHICAGO - A federal court here convicted longtime Puerto
Rican independence activist José Solís Jordán on false
"terrorism" charges March 12. Based in large part on the
testimony of a paid FBI informer and provocateur and of a
string of FBI agents, Solís was framed up on charges of
bombing a military recruitment facility here in 1992.
The sentencing by Judge Blanche Manning is scheduled to take place July 7. Solís could be sentenced up to 55 years in prison. Defense lawyers said they plan to appeal.
Chanting and carrying signs, candles, and Puerto Rican flags, more than 100 protesters held a vigil the following evening in front of the federal prison in downtown Chicago where Solís is being held. They shouted "Grand jury, FBI, U.S. justice is a lie!" and "The human rights problem in the world today is right here in the USA!" Prisoners responded to the protest by tapping on windows and flicking lights on and off on many floors of the 20-story building.
"This lets them know that just because José was convicted, it doesn't mean he was defeated," declared Miguel Morales, an activist in the Committee in Solidarity with José Solís Jordán. "We're letting them know we're still standing up."
After a two-week trial, Solís was found guilty on all four counts with which he was charged: conspiracy to destroy government property, destruction of government property by means of explosives and arson, attempted destruction of government property by explosive devices, and illegal possession of explosives.
Solís, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico who taught at DePaul University in Chicago in 1991-95, denied he was involved in any bombing and explained that the FBI targeted him because of his political activities and to go after the Puerto Rican independence movement.
The prosecution's main witness was FBI informer and provocateur Rafael Marrero. On the witness stand Marrero admitted he had built two pipe bombs and placed them at the military center. The devices did not explode, but one reportedly set fire to a government car. Marrero accused Solís of conspiring with him in the bombing as part of an alleged group called "Frente Revolucionario Boricua" (FRB, or Puerto Rican Revolutionary Front).
Marrero acknowledged he had received $119,000 from the FBI over the past three and a half years for his work against the Puerto Rican independence movement. Marrero was also the key government witness in an Illinois state legislative committee investigation last year, which unsuccessfully sought to accuse the local school council and supporters of Puerto Rican independence at Roberto Clemente High School in Chicago of misusing federal funds.
The FBI produced a second individual, Eddie Brooks, who testified that he had been part of the alleged conspiracy but dropped out a few months before the incident. In 1996, when questioned by the FBI, Brooks had said only he and Marrero had scouted out possible bombing targets, according to the FBI reports. Now, however, on the witness stand, Brooks changed his account, claiming Solís had accompanied them.
In addition to the testimony by Marrero and Brooks, the government presented two main pieces of "evidence." One was a tape recording Marrero said he made while wearing a concealed wire - fitted by the FBI -to dinner with Solís and his wife in a restaurant in Puerto Rico in January 1997. Most of the conversation heard on the tape that was played in the courtroom was unintelligible, and of what could be heard, most was in Spanish. There were no native Spanish-speaking members of the jury.
Jurors had to rely on a written "translation" prepared by the government. The text makes no references to any bombing or anything else illegal. The court used Marrero's interpretation of what was being said on the tape as evidence against Solís.
Phony confession
The second piece of alleged evidence, described by the
prosecution as a "confession," was a document written by FBI
agent William Matthews, summarizing what government agents
claim Solís told them the day he was arrested in November
1997. On the witness stand, Solís testified that the unsigned
document was a fabrication.
In an effort to buttress the government's case, three FBI agents testified that Solís had confessed while being interrogated at the U.S. government building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, immediately following his arrest. The pro- independence activist was arrested in San Juan on the morning of November 6, l997, by more than a dozen heavily armed FBI agents who surrounded his home, released pepper spray into the house, and then dragged him off for questioning.
Solís testified that he was not allowed to speak to his lawyer for five hours as the U.S. cops carried out their interrogation. In response, the prosecution paraded eight FBI agents before the jury who asserted that Solís did not request to speak to a lawyer.
Assistant U.S. attorney Virginia Kendall asked Solís on the witness stand if it was possible that the testimonies of the FBI agents and the two "co-conspirators" could be fabrications. Solís replied, "It wouldn't be the first time it happened in history."
During the trial, prosecutors tried to smear the Puerto Rican independence movement, citing José López, director of the Puerto Ri-can Cultural Center and a prominent advocate of Puerto Rico's independence, as "the brains" behind the bombing. Assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Bunge told jurors during opening arguments that López wanted the "FRB" to "carry out acts of violence."
López was also one of the main targets of the government slander campaign during the state legislative hearings on Clemente High School. In a statement published by his defense committee, Solís explained that when he was arrested, the FBI agents "told me if I delivered José López to them they'd help me. They said they could perform miracles, they could relocate me, help me out...they could make all my problems disappear. They asked me questions about other nationalists."
FBI agent Matthews suggested he wear a wire. Solís refused to act as a fink in exchange for avoiding prosecution.
In another attempt to smear the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, government witness Brooks asserted on the witness stand that he had been a member of another organization, the Movement for National Liberation (MLN), that he said held meetings in the basement of the Cultural Center. The MLN is one of the groups the big-business media portrays as terrorist.
The government also attempted to associate Solís with "terrorism" by the fact that he and his wife, Martha González, had visited some of the Puerto Rican political prisoners in U.S. jails. The prosecutors painted these prisoners as dangerous "terrorists." A broad international campaign has been under way for years to win the release of 15 independentista prisoners.
Over the past several months, Solís has spoken and lectured frequently in both Chicago and Puerto Rico on his case and on the struggle against U.S. colonial domination of the island. He has repeatedly explained how his case fits into the long history of political repression by the U.S. government against independence fighters, including Cointelpro and FBI disruption operations and "the 20 years of federal grand jury investigations that never end."
Solís has participated in numerous pro-independence events both in Puerto Rico and during his years in Chicago, including at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and on the DePaul campus where he was teaching a full course load at the time. Some of the several dozen supporters who attended the trial know him well from this work.
"The Solís problem has united us all in a way we never thought we would. I didn't expect this breadth because not everyone is an independentista," said Carlos Ramírez, a professor from Puerto Rico who flew to Chicago with his wife to attend the trial. He called back every night to report on the proceedings to leaders of Solís's defense committee on the island.
`I will keep fighting'
The night before the verdict was reached Solís was the
featured speaker at an event called by the Union for Puerto
Rican Students at Northeastern University in Chicago. Fifty
students attended.
Before the verdict of guilty was announced, a reporter from a local Spanish-language television station asked him what he would do if found innocent. Solís replied that he would "keep fighting."
The reporter than asked what he would do if found guilty. Solís replied, "Keep fighting.... That's my life."
After the jury announced its verdict, Solís turned to his supporters and said "Number 16." He was referring to the fact that there would now be one more Puerto Rican political prisoner held in U.S. jails.
The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners has called for events on April 4 demanding the release of imprisoned Puerto Rican independence fighters.
Contributions to the defense campaign can be sent to the José Solís Jordán Defense Fund, c/o The Law Offices of Jed Stone, 434 W. Ontario, Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60610.
The Committee in Solidarity with José Solís Jordán can be contacted at P.O. Box 577826, Chicago, IL 60657-7826; tel.: (312) 409-0801; Email: solis42566@aol.com. The committee's web site is www.defendsolis.org
Pattie Thompson is a member of the International Association of Machinists. Joshua Carroll is a member of the United Steelworkers of America.